Very excited for '08!

I'm very geared up for '08. I think it's going to be my best year in this business. I posted a while back about potential changes to our industry in the upcoming years. The bottom line is no one knows what's going to happen 3, 5 or 10 years from now. I'm sure if you asked Mass. agents 5 years ago whether or not their state would have implemented their system most would have said "Nah - just a bunch of politicians talking."

I like "expect the best, plan for the worst." I really love this industry and what I do but have admittedly not maximized my potential. I really don't want the train to stop some time in the future and spend the rest of my life saying "well, I really could have made "X" amount if I would have given it 100%."

I will never maximize my potential sitting in a chair in front of a computer. I'm a people person - not a glorified telemarketer. I simply perform better and are much happier when I'm out and about.

My flyer campaign is first - I'll be out with those this week. Although I'll continue with telemarketed leads those will be eventually burn out since I'm only generating business is my locality this coming year. I'll have much more of a focus on renting table space at events - to which I have no earthly clue as to what the return will be on that.

But I'm not a "guesser." You can play with stupid math scenarios and lock yourself into "analysis paralysis" and never get anything done. Most new ventures are "do, fail, tweak, re-do." I'm prepared for that.

The bottom line is this; I can go B to B as I have many, many times in the past and write 3 apps a week for 10 hours of B to B. My average commish is $800 so you can do that math. Expenses are zero (minus cost of flyers.) Can another agent make 10 hours of calls and get 3 deals? Not sure - maybe. Are they all biz owners? Probably not.

Every time I've done B to B my laziness kicks in and I start thinking "well there just has to be a way where I can do less effort with the same results."

But B to B is also no long term solution since again, you burn up the territory. You can't walk into the same business again a months later: "Hey, me again."

I'm simply anxious to see how being very active in the community in general will result in business. Only time will tell.

Researching local events

A few months ago we went to a German festival at Fort Meade which is five minutes from our house. It was packed with sponsors who all had tables - well over 50 businesses. The place was mobbed and there were lines of people waiting to visit the tables to pick up information and the giveaways.

Come to find out later it was a whopping $150 to rent a table. You didn't need any huge trade show display. All you needed was $150 and something to give people who stopped by.

The event was Sat. and Sun. Just a wild guess - I would have pulled at least 20 deals out of it. I pulled 7 deals out of a small health fair held at a local fire station (which only ran 10am to 2pm) in '04 and about 200 people where there. There's one thing however I don't have to guess at. I didn't get any business out of it because I didn't have a table.

I've done a lot of research and obviously events are all over the place - far too many to be to personally attend. I'd like to be at the larger events this year - the Maryland State Fair pulls in 600,000 people. How much business would I get out of that?

I think a lot of it is how you have it designed. If you just plant your ass in a chair and people come by to just take your brochures and giveaways - probably not that many. If you create a bit of a buzz and get people to write down their basic info then obviously you'll do a lot better.

In our area Chick-Fil-A always has a booth where you spin a wheel to see which giveaway you'll gonna get. You also fill out a card to win a bigger prize.

I'm not sure I can give away any type of large prize due to rebating laws. But I can absolutely have people fill out short "get a free quote" cards. The bottom line is when people come by you want their contact information.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Gearing up for '08

My original goal has not been forgotten; to establish a local health insurance agency. True to that goal I'm gearing up for '08 in a few days. Everything done to gain business with be local. That will include:

1) Local telemarketed leads
2) Renting table/booth space at events
3) B to B flyers - probably pay someone to distribute them
4) Ads in local publictions

My theory:
A lot of people would review their coverage and possibly switch but there's no local established agent/agency they know about and trust. We all know that most people actively seeking quotes are young, broke or unhealthy.

Most people with money, between 40 to 62 with coverage just suck it up. They're likely uphappy with their rate but wouldn't be caught dead typing in their personal information on the net.

I am happiest when I'm out of the house. I successfully sold online for almost a year - never met with a single client. And I was never more miserable.

Merry Christmas

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!!

Hell Yeah!

Mail truck pulls up yesterday and gives me a package. I open it up and it's a frick'n Magellan RoadMate GSP Navigation system from my Assurant RSD. How cool is that!

I've been wanting a navigation system for a while so I'm thrilled. I've been playing with it every since I got it - has the voice feature and everything else I'd want.

In other news, my seminar for new agents is almost done. Actually, there's not too much to put together. We all remember when we first go licensed and said "Ok, now what."

Most newbies get sucked into NAA, Mega and Aflac or captive life companies who may or may not be telling them what it's really gonna take to make that "easy six figure" income everyone's touting.

I'm a firm believer that any agent who has a great work ethic and sales skills would do far better selling health insurance then any other product. But just how would any agent get into the health field? Ummm.....unless it's UGA, Cornerstone or UA they wouldn't. Most new agents don't even know companies like Golden Rule exist none less how to get appointed.

The seminar isn't going to be about one company being better or one way of generating leads being superior. It'll be about letting agents know all the available ways to generate leads with all the pros and cons of any method.

So what I've put together is a "how to become a health insurance agent." No one will contact under me - that's a conflict of interest.

I've received a decent amount of feedback regarding pricing and everyone's all over the map from $50 to over $1,000.

First of all, it's not necessarily about what it's worth but what people are willing and able to pay. It's also about starting low to establish myself then possibly charging more. I think the initial fee will be around $200.

No more secretaries?

I guess this is a bit off topic from health insurance but I've been doing a lot of research lately which entails calling a lot of companies. I'm stunned by the number of voice mails I get either calling the mail toll free number or going straight to the voicemail of people high up in the company.

Where the hell did all the secretaries go? I don't mind hitting voicemail if I'm calling a person or home-based business. But if I'm calling a company with a business location I should never hit voicemail - ever.

These companies don't want to spring for $12/hr to have someone answer the phone? There's also a lot of message services you can hire where someone will answer with your company name and take a message.

Even more insane is unreturned messages. These companies have no idea why I'm calling - if I hit "Bob's" voicemail I simply leave "please call me back at ****" message. I could be a potential client - no returned call.

Still chugging along

Again, sorry for the lack of updates but between Christmas, my wife starting a new job, keeping up on individual business and working on a project my time has been limited, but I'll be back to updating every day.

I'm not doing any type of marketing right now for new health sales - kinda "off" until Jan 2nd. I still get new business from existing leads and referrals. I also have renewals.

Right now I'm putting together a kind of workshop or seminar to educate newly licensed agents or agents looking to make a switch into health insurance sales. It will not replace my individual sales but simply be something I do around twice a month.

No one needs me to explain that new agents basically are screwed when it comes to carrier contracts, lead sources and a myriad of other land mines and pitfalls. As we all know, most new agents get snatched up by unethical captive companies and those who wish to go independent don't have the faintest clue on how to go about it. They end up signing up with agencies who only tout one or possibly two carriers.

I still have not figured out:

1) How long the seminar would need to be - I'm thinking 6 hours.
2) How much I'd charge.

It's actually not a matter of how much I'd charge, but how much someone's willing to pay for a fair value. Comments are welcome. How much would any of your paid to get "all the scoop" on going independent.

Sorry for the lack of updates

I'm sorry for the lack of updates but I'd like what I post to be new and not just rehashing old posts. I'm current doing consulting for four clients so I'm trying to give them my time. Although I'm still writing deals I'm also working heavily on a project - have been for about 2 months now - that's not even close to being finished yet. When it gets closer to being done I'll talk more about it.

Up to 8 agents??? WTF!

I'm trying to help out a new agent and am doing some shared lead research for him. Just got off the phone with InsureMe since a few year ago they were one of my better sources - the volume was simply never there.

I was stunned when I asked how many agents share the lead and heard "up to 8." What! Up to 8? She said the average is between 3 to 5 but yes, in some markets it's shared with 8 agents.

Man, you just really have to feel for these people wondering onto websites thinking they're gonna see quotes and up the 8 agents call them. How in the hell does InsureMe think the client is served by any more than 3 agents calling? It really burns my biscuits.

Holiday blues

Ok, even I like this template better. Done.

I'm getting a bad case of the holiday blues which is way too soon. I still have 2 1/2 weeks of solid selling to do and I'm doing my best to punch it out until the 21st. From the 21st to the 2nd you're pretty much dead in the water. Consider it our industry's one week vacation.

My wife just started her first job in six year yesterday! That's fantastic since any income she brings in is extra money - and we need it. Although I made good money I'm buried in tax debt from before I even became an agent. Then during my 4 years as an agent I made 3 good attempts at recruiting. Unless you have a bank roll and don't mind working 12 hours a day I don't recommend hiring.

I can give you a little "recruting 101"

First of all, how much are you writing? If you're not writing much you shouldn't hire - if you can't do you can't teach. Actually, if you can't do you shouldn't teach. If you can do, and make good money it will take 4 agents writing the same amount as you to replace your income. About 1 out of every 50 agents hired will be a consistent producer - and you have to train and babysit the other 49.

Marketing

First of all, now I'm depressed. I hated the old look of this blog and really like the new antique look. However, my sister thinks it looks girly. Oh well.

I think I've succeeded in confusing a lot of people regarding marketing in general - shared leads, live transfers, hire girls, get Gary's CRM, etc...

Let's break it down:

The single best way to generate leads is picking up the phone and making calls. It's free and effective. I really recommend Gary's CRM (call Gary at 912-944-2540.) You can easily generate 4 to 6 leads per hour - call it 5 for the math and you'll write 2 to 3 deals week.

If you're new in this field you want to be able to take your time with clients until you get a feel all of this.

If you're new in this business:

A) Pick up the phone and start making calls
B) Hit the street with some flyers and go B to B

There is no "C." Spending a lot of money on leads when you're new is pretty much an express ticket out of this business. Under no circumstance would I recommend a new agent buy shared leads. Save yourself the time and just hop on Monster.com

Even now I don't go anywhere without flyers in my car. If we stop off at any shopping plaza I hit every store then catch up to my wife. If I get a deal a month out of it that could be $700 a month extra.

Live transfers and hiring marketers/running a campaign

I would only recommend spending money in leads when you at least have a few deals under your belt. When you do, make sure you're spending money on exclusive leads. There has never been a more failed concept than sharing leads. Most will fail. The few with success experience great frustration and it's not the way to make a living in this business.

Even with all that said I'm out to proove to myself that nothing will trump establishing a stong local presence.

Offering consulting

I offered consulting services over a year ago and it was quite successful. Unfortuntely, and to be honest, I let a few bitter agents get to me who thought it was horribly unethical for me to charge for help and information. That decision I feel is up to the person who's willing to pay.

This post is spawned by yet another new agent I just go off the with who said "I just too much help and can't waste that much of your time." This is a recurring theme from people who contact me. I'm simply charging $20/hr and there's no minimum.

I can offer and will always offer people free advice. But there's a difference between a 20 minute conversation and someone who really needs and wants help - especially on-going help.

A lot of people who contact me are embarrassed to "waste my time" and understand that I work for a living. I think a lot of agent never contact anyone at all. Under no circumstances should agents be "winging" this business. There are far too many traps and pitfalls unless you want the typical 1 year learning curve that costs you $30K in marketing and lost deals.

What I have to offer quite frankly is very valuable - especially for new agents. I can show you how to get the best contracts that fits your needs and basically go over A to Z of anything relating to health insurance.

Well - the pitch is here:

http://healthinsuranceconsulting.blogspot.com/

My appointment this morning

Wow - almost the appointment from hell. Sell that one online? I barely made it out the house with an app. He was fantastic on the phone but laid into me at the house. He's computer software engineer and simply went over every detail.

His hang up? Lab and ER going to the deductible. He couldn't get past it. He kept saying over and over "so basically except for seeing a doctor I owe thousands." Ummmm....yes.

I would not have closed that as a new agent. I had everything on dining room table. It was a sea of brochures and rates. I had to show it "is it what it is." We covered Assurant's bad rates, Aetna's horrible rates and Blue Cross' lacking coverage - and still everyone's lab and ER hits the deductible.

He was flustered but knew his wife and kids had to have coverage. He literally had his head in his hands and said "So this Golden Rule is the best we're gonna get?" Yep - best rates, great coverage. He signed.

How the Vimo transfers work

I've received a lot of emails about the Vimo transfers so I'll post the entire scoop. First of all, you can call Justin at 650-230-0070. If you do decide to sign up please do me a favor and use me as your reference - I do get a credit for referrals. And although I do get a credit I would never recommend any lead source that I don't think is fantastic. And you're talking to a guy who hasn't purchased an internet lead in almost 2 years.

*You sign up and fund your account. I believe you need $100 to fund it but talk to Justin. I already had credits in my account from over a year and a half ago when I used their shared leads - then chose to suspend my account. I found their shared leads to be lacking.

*As you see in my screenshot, you then see the bids for the states you chose. Since there's not a high volume of leads available in any given state you're encouraged to choose more than one. As you see, I picked my backyard - MD, VA and DC. Then you bid. It's like Ebay for leads - almost. You can ask about what the bids are like in your state before you sign up. I believe in TX max bid's are like $65. I think it speaks volumes if there's an agent out there willing to spend $65 per lead. Well - think about it. For $195 (1 out of 3 closing) to return $700 go ahead and close 1 per day and you're at $2,500 net for the week and your job is answering the phone when it rings. I'll take it.

*When some one hits the Vimo site as you can see they have two options - run quotes themselves or talk to a professional. I really like this. Obviously only the most interested people will choose to speak with an agent. The prospect then speaks with a Vimo rep who does a basic qualification - height/weight, major conditions, the basic story and makes sure they will wait on hold while they transfer to an agent.

*The higest bidding agent is the 1st one called. If that agent doesn't pick up or passes it goes to the next bidder. So you can pass? Yes. When your phone rings you are not connected with the prospect or charged at that point. You're on wiht the Vimo rep who gives you the Reader's Digest version - age, general situation, etc...You then choose to accept the call or pass. If you accept you're connected and also recorded. This is just in case the call drops or during your health screening you uncover a major declineable condition. Then there's no charge.

*You can set you preferences for times you want to be called and also pause your account. Obviously you're not charged if Vimo calls you and you don't pick up but it's a waste of everyone's time to have you phone ring if you're not available. Pause you account.

*The leads are exclusive. You can take the calls, go over the basics with the prospect and collect all the info you need, then arrange a time to call back. No one else can get that lead.

ROI

As I posted below - how much does it cost for you to be on the phone with a qualified prospect who wants to speak with you? You tell me. At $8 per lead for 20 leads that's $160. So you tell me what normally happens after you call 20 shared leads. Do you get a hold of 1, 2, 4, 6 of them? When you do are you the only agent calling? When you get a hold of them do they look forward to hearing from y0u? Only you can answer those questions since every lead source is different.

You should be making $700 per deal average commission. Closing 1 out of 4 of these at $30 a hit is $120 for a deal. I'm willing to bet that's your ROI for closing shared leads but this is 1/1oth the headache. My good friend has only been on them for 2 weeks now but closing 1 out of 3.

I have received 2 and closed 2. I imagine I'm also good for 1 out of 3 over the long haul.

Vimo live transfers

Well I took two transfers today and closed both! The 1st transfer was just a 25 year old girl, dropped off her parents plan. I took all of her info, emailed her plans and rates, called her back at the time we set and signed her up online. Perfectly healthy except an outpatient knee procedure 4 years ago - torn AC, no issue.

Second transfer was a huband looking for coverage for his wife and two kids. His job wants over $600 a month to add them which is obviously a no-go. Wife's 34 and healthy with two kids - no meds, no conditions. I also emailed him plans and rates and he called me back an hour before the appointed time - wanted me to go over everything.

We have an appointment to meet tomorrow morning at 9am. I'm not gonna go over all the details with them then he's supposed to turn around and explain it all to his wife? Nope. The best I could have done was schedule to time to call the wife but we all know how that goes sometimes. Huband's paying - wife picks the plan. It's basically closed - he knows I'm coming over to take an app and after leaving the appointment time completely open it was him who suggested we meet tomorrow. Very solid.

Now I'm not retarded - I won't be closing every Vimo lead I get. I obviously had a horseshoe up my ass today but there's no way on earth you're closing less than 1 out of 4. I'm on this like white on rice. Oh, and I didn't even max out the bid and still got two calls. Got a buddy in MI who's steadily closing 1 out of 3.

VERY nice to have these be exclusive. I can let people off the phone to catch a breath and not worry about them getting pummeled.

My goals and my lead rant

My goals the next year have remained unchanged - I want to do 100% local advertising including sponsoring all available local events. Why don't I just do that now? Cash flow. Although I made good money now, after taxes, business and personal expenses it's not enough. I need to save up money.

I'm also extremely interested in the Vimo live transfer leads. As stated, I am absolutely not against buying leads. I'm against buying junk leads. The quality of internet leads sucked to a point with me where I was literally spending half my day calling people over and over just to write modest business. Then call centers spung up and I was now competeting with unethical slam artists.

I used to call 10 leads and have 4 to 5 pick up the phone. Then I normally was only sharing that lead with a discount rep and Mega agent. I was doing quit well, always closed 1 out of 10 and was happy to pay around $8 a pop. Then most lead companies either jacked the rates, went under (two good source I used simply said forget it when Google re-configured rates for PPC and 1st place placement) and most went to affliate programs.

SO WHAT DID INTERNET LEADS USED TO BE LIKE?

I attached the last month I had with internet leads which for me was July of 2006 - about a year and a half ago (before it all went into the crapper.)

Received 46 leads
Spoke with 27
Wrote 10

That's 58% answered and I closed one out of every 2.7 people I spoke with. I closed one out of every 4.6 leads received. What you don't see is volume. You didn't need it (and couldn't get it anyway) since they are all people actually searching for health insurance. Now you could get 46 leads and be luck to speak to 4 people. Maybe you have 2 or 3 deals - maybe you have none.

The problem with the companies that went to affiliates is they continued to charge the same rates even though quality was greatly diminished as well as their costs. What's a spam generated lead worth? About $3 to $4. The only lead worth $8 is a key word generated lead - meaning the client hopped on the net and typed in "health insurance quotes." How much is a lead worth where the prospect doesn't know or want agent contact? Next to nothing - around $1 to $2.

Affiliates have landing sites that tout "instant online quotes." Lead companies should not allow that. All landing sites should state in some way that agents will contact them. And lastly, agents should not put up with it. If you're spending over $7 for leads where the client has no idea you're calling and they're not key work driven you should write an email to that company and quit. How anyone is paying $7 to $8 per lead to have 5% or even 10% of the people pick up the phone is beyond me. All I can say is you're not very business savvy.

The Vimo live transfer has my interest peaked because I'm seeing the exact same results I used to have on my old lead system.

Forgot to mention...

For the Vimo live transfers, when your phone rings it's a Vimo rep on the other line - not the client. The Vimo rep gives you the basics - age and situation. You then determine if it's "pass or play."

I re-activated my Vimo today and forgot to pause my account - I don't want any leads yet since I'm 4 days behind on calling my telemarketed leads. But I just got a call from Vimo - rep told me he had a lady on the phone who's son just got dropped from her plan and she wantes him covered immediately.

For the internet lead people

I was on the phone with on of my agent friends in Michigan and he was going on and on about the Vimo live transfer leads - says he's closing 1 out of 4. I've known this guy for almost four years and he only sells off internet leads and only selling online - very successfully I might add. He's constantly looking for and testing new lead sources.

Vimo Live Transfer
Vimo advertises all over the place and when prospects call in they talk to a Vimo rep who then screens then for health and makes sure they want to speak with an agent. The call then goes to an agent.

Agents bid for the price so obviously the price is set by "the market" or agents. I like that a lot. By definition if they were junk or "un-closable" then over a short period of time the program would be defunct.

Right now bids are in the $35 range but that doesn't mean you have to bid that much to get a call. Agent with the highest bid simple get called first. If they don't answer it goes to the second highest bidder. If you bid on "off times" like nights or weekends you can get a good deal.

But let's take $35 as a cost point. First of all, this is an exclusive health-qualified lead (If they don't health qualify it's credited.) So the question is how much do you pay to speak to someone. And actually, the question is how much do you pay to speak with someone who WANTS to speak with an agent?

Let's say the best lead sources have a 20% answer rate. So 20 leads results in 4 people picking up the phone. At $7 per lead right there is $35 to speak to someone. And out of those 4 people who answer how many wanted to speak to an agent? None to 2. Now you're at $70 or more to speak with someone who actually wants to talk to you.

If you don't understand ROI you probably would never consider a lead for $35. If you don't have fantastic closing skills you might not want to give this a shot either. If you think this might be for you then you need to track your closing percentage of people you actually speak to.

Say you close 1 out of 30 shared leads but only talk to 6 out of those 30. In that case you would have paid $210 for 6 Vimo transfers. However, at $7 a pop you spent the exact same amount. It's kinda "don't let the math fool you."

The beauty of this to me is not having to rummage through 30 leads to find 6 people who actually want to talk to you. On some of the worse sources now only 10% are picking up the phone. Heck - that's 3 people out of 30. At $7 for 30 leads you've just spent $210 - you just don't have to scour through 30 leads.

This would only be a system for people with proven closing ability and obviously great phone skills. You also need some cake - they debit your card for ever $100 in charges. So if you want 4 leads per day you're talking about $100+ per day.

Can you get killed? Well, getting killed would be making nothing. So at $700 average commission and $35 per transfer that's 20 leads and no sales. If you can't close people who are pre-screened and and waiting on hold to talk to you then you need another career.

This is inticing to me. I'm not against internet leads at all. I'm against calling junk. If quality had not sunken so drastically I would have never shut off my leads in the first place.

I think the math will still mess with a lot of agent's heads. I think most agens would be happy to pay $2 a lead and close 1 out of 50 but wouldn't pay $20 a lead to close 1 out of 5. Sticker shock gets to you.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Getting ready for the next phase

I'm getting the money together for the next phase of my plans which will entail 100% local marketing. I will obviously keep the telemarketed leads as long as they come in but if the past is a predictor of the future I have a few months with my marketers before they flake. It certainly beats having them for a few weeks before they flake on the old 1099 system. When and if my marketers quit I will not replace them.

To be honest, I am burt to the crisp on bugging people. It's not in my nature to pester people and a source of anxiety when I make my calls. The good obviously outweighs the bad and helping people is absoutely worth "bothering" people for 20 seconds on the phone. At least I let people off the hook quickly.

My original theory was there's enough local people interested in changing their health insurance situation to make a great living. I still believe that. All the local State Farm, Allstate and Nationwide offices can't be wrong. I'm friends now with a local agency owner who I met through my chamber. About 90% of his clients come to his office just from his local presence and referrals although he admitted it took years to accomplish that. I have the time - ain't going anywhere.

I will be doing a lot of events after the new year. Basically, if an event allows me to rent table/booth space then I'm there. This is the kind of stuff I truely enjoy anyway. I am not too well set up to sit in my office making calls. It's unbelievable boring to me. I'm a "out and about guy" which is why I did a lot of B to B and why I'm back to meeting most of my clients.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Yes, I guess it's this easy

To be honest, I'm not much into it today. My son's off school and I'm pulling the plug now - be back at it on Friday.

I made it through about half my list, called one lead and got chewed out for not sending the info yet. This guy just started a business and cancelled Cobra due to cost. He does NOT like being without coverage and was thrilled Lisa called.

He's 37, single, healthy and just slighly overweight - 6.1 250 pds. That's GR all the way thanks to their revised weight table he's standard 2. I just emailed him my GR link and it's Copay Select, $1,500 deductible. $174 a month is a $417 commish which means a $242 profit from yesteray and I haven't done anything yet.

With this much volume I could basically write 6 deals a week by mistake.

If it can be this easy...

I'm about to call my 39 leads from yesterday and I'll post the result. What you'll see if that 1 out of 30 leads is a lay down; qualify, want and need help and close quickly. That doesn't mean I can't close better than 1 out of 30, but it's enjoyable to speak with that one person who really appreciates my help.

I can really make this work with 1 out of 30 and it's almost beating the system. I can call 30 leads in an hour - 60% answer and most of them just wanted the info. Out of 30 dials I have around 3 people who are very conversational.

Now I can imagine 30 leads a day, one hour of calls a day, close that one deal and call it a life. The math again is easy:

30 leads X $4.5 = $135
$3,500 AV per deal X 20% average commish = $700
Net = $665 X 5 days = $3,325

I only think this can only be pulled off with exclusive telemarketed leads. First of all, shared leads at $7.50 would be $225 per 30 leads and AV drops to $2,600 per deal. That's a $295 net per deal.

As you see, you can't pull off a 1 out of 30 closing ratio. You also can't pull off just calling once. Only 10% answer the phone at any given time so calling 30 shared leads means you're only speaking to 3 people.

You do indeed get a hold of more and more people as you continue to call back however at 30 shared leads a day with other agents calling you'd be completely overwhelmed within days. Within weeks you'd be buried.

Also, with the telemarketed leads I have a life. If you're not one of the 1st agents to call a shared lead you chances of closing drop substantially. That means you're glued to your computer all day. With my leads I call all of them at one shot - then my calls are over for the day unless I have a few call-backs.

I will indeed call a lead twice but then I'm done. I've already left a new message and sent an email. They've also seen my caller ID two times. Any more than that and I'm a stalker.

I talk about this over and over and over, but if you have to wake up and constantly pester old leads you will not enjoy this career. It's often discussed why the failure rate is so high. The reason it's so high is because the average agent is working 15 to 20 leads a week and simply not speaking to enough people with very high interest.

Most agents are not told the truth because their managers don't really care if they only close 1 deal that week - just so long as 20 of their other agents also closed a deal.

The truth is simple - I have not seen many agents beat 1 out of 20 for closing. Do the math - you want 3 deals a week you need 60 leads. Anything less than that and you can pound you head against the wall as hard as you want.

Kicking it up a notch

So what do you do when you have two great consistent telemarketers? That's easy - hire another one. Connie's on board and she's a pro - 3 years of at-home experience, 300 dials per day.

39 leads today between everyone and this is just insane. Actually, Jenn and Connie both apologized for working short days. I think tomorrow I should see around 50 leads.

This is all where it just becomes easy. I don't have to mess with anyone with low interest, don't have to spend days calling the same people over and over. High volume is where it's at and I just can't lose.

Even on 40 leads for the day, say I only closed 1, that's $800 in commish for $180 in cost = $620 net. Do that every day and it's $3,100. That's of course absurd - there's 2 to 3 deals out of 40 leads and that's just making one round of calls.

I'm actually closing 1 out of 18. At 40 leads a day that's 11 deals per week which should net me $6,800 per week. Very exciting just to think about that.

I can't tell you how relaxing it's gonna be to call all 39 of those leads tomorrow. This job is fun when you don't have to dig into people or pull out stupid sales tricks.

Phone sales - recording needed

Dealing with yet another client who was lied to on the phone it occurs to me that this needs to be tracked.

The lady I signed up yesterday on Carefirst bought GR over the phone - she told her agent she wanted maternity, agent said it was included. Yeah...except GR doesn't offer maternity in MD. Luckly she's on another plan now however if she had become pregnant it would just become a case of "he said she said" and she'd be ass out.

Then it hits me that almost every time a sales rep calls you the conversation is recorded "for quality assurance." Now I know this would be difficult, but I'd like nothing better than if it was made mandatory by either the DOI or all insurance companies that all phone sales be recorded.

You would have to introduce yourself and state the call is being recorded. If any dispute arises you'd have to produce the recorded conversation or your license would be immediately suspended - kinda like declining to take the breathalizer. Better yet - the insurance company immediately gets the recording after each sale. If a client calls into an insurance company those calls are obviously recorded. When I used to do "tele-app" with Assurant all calls were recorded.

I'm not saying you'd need to record every conversation with the client - only the conversation during the online application process. So say you're talking to a prospect and they say "Ok, let's do it." At that point in time you'd have to say "Ok, I can take care of the application process now and we'll now be recorded for quality assurance."

You would then be required to go over the rate and plan benefits. How many sales would an ethical rep lose? None and in fact some clients would feel an addition layer of safety knowing that what they're being told about the plan is recorded. Unethical agents? The day after recording became mandatory they'd be looking in the classified section.

For what it's worth, I'll be writing a letter recommending this to the NAIC. As online sales increase, and more people get screwed, our entire industry is put in jeopardy. This is gonna be an example where the few bad applies ruin it for everyone else.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Just unbelievable

1st:

I closed the case from yesterday where she was on GR for $450 and needed maternity - she also complained about the $1,500 deductible - thought it was too high. So I put the wife on Blue Choice today for $277 - HMO with all copays and immediate maternity and her husband and child got Personal Comp for $153. So they didn't save much but she has maternity with and a no deductible plan. Assurant w/maternity was a no-go due to cost.

2nd:

Got 12 leads yesterday and it only took 20 minutes to call 'em. Got one great prospect out of it - owner of a small car dealer. The owner wants quotes and also quotes for three employees. They currently offer nothing and the owner canceled his Blue Cross plan last year when it hit $700 a month. Perfectly healthy family. Please note that out of 12 leads called that was my only possibility. A lot of my day was spent on a referral - closing her tomorrow for GR.

3rd:

30 leads today between Jenn and Lisa! Lisa's finally up and running and gave me 5 1/2 hours of work today. Wow - never in my short 4 years in this biz have I never had consistent leads like this. The result is night and day - I'm am simply getting slammed all day.

It does not take a lot of deals to make money. At an average commish of $800 (cut that in half if you're dealing with singles on internet leads) all I need is 4 deals a week and that's a lot of money.

My goal is what I just got today - 30 leads a day and plan on closing 1 out of 30. Why such a bad percentage? At 30 leads a day I simply won't have time to be on the phone hours a day hunting people down. I'll deal with the people who answer, call the others back one more time then I have to let Constant Contact take care of 'em.

My cost per lead is $4.60. At 30 leads a day, closing 1 out of 30 here it is:

150 leads per week X 4.60 = $690 5 deals per week X $3,500 AV per deal = $17,500 20% average commish = $3,500 Net = $2,810

If I can make $146,000 a year simply by spending 1 out hour each day calling 30 leads I'm all over it. I'm not factoring in cross-selling Fidelity.

Now...remember that math above because I didn't factor in a HUGE change - which is now that Lisa's up and running I'll be having her use Gary's CRM system for telemarketing which will TRIPLE her lead output!

Now - when that happens I have a master plan. If I have Lisa and Jenn using the marketing CRM and getting me 50+ leads a day I'll hire someone to "scrub" the leads. She'd spend the day calling all the leads and separating the interesting from the disinterested. She'd also handle all the emailing.

Leads - the reality

More and more "so what am I doing wrong" emails so I decided to post the results of the 31 calls I made this morning. They were all recent - had not been called before.

So let's go over this so everyone understands that you're not doing anything wrong and it's just about lead volume.

*I made 31 calls in an hour - between 10:10 and 11:10 this morning.

*9 call-backs since the prospect wasn't available, 8 voicemail, 12 dead and two great prospects.

*So out of 31 calls I spoke with 14 people who made the decision. Almost all had group and wanted lower rates and I simply don't mess with group. They got referred out to my buddy. (Yes, I took a stab at working some small group cases myself but found I'm not a masochist.) I have yet to get ahold of the other 17 but this was only the 1st call.

*I enjoy dialing numbers and when least half pick up the phone. It doesn't bother me in the least if they have group and just want some group quotes - that's an easy referral for my buddy.

Now let's talk about qualification and more about why marketers shouldn't do it. They are paid by the hour so what's it to me if I make an hour of calls and find two solid leads. I could easily call 30 leads a day every day since it just takes an hour.

I have a slam dunk in there - biz owner on GR and her "agent" failed to mention her depression would not be covered. He also talked her into a $1,500 deductible - $450/mo. rate she can't handle. So it's easy; lower rate and depression meds covered. Not a problem.

However, she was HORRIBLE when I first called her - very stand-offish and borderline rude. She said "I thought I was supposed to read over some information first." I told her I wanted to make sure the info matched what she was looking for. It took a few minutes for her to warm up and open up to me. If Lisa would have tried to qualify her that would never have been a lead.

The other point is I had 31 leads to call. A lot of agents don't get that in a week - then you're simply sunk. As you can see, I have 2 deals working, but only one immediately. The other, although she has high interest, won't go until after Thanksgiving.

Now if that's all I had to work with all week I'd be baked. Now I'd have to pummel the phones to get ahold of the others (I'll call again, but only 1 more time) and I'd also really have to dig into the other leads who simply weren't interested.

Instead, forget about them - move one. I'll have another batch of leads to call tomorrow and that's why I enjoy this job. I get to work with people who have high interest and not punish the people who don't.

There's no magic bullet. If you don't have the volume of leads it ain't happening. You can read all the sales books you want. If anyone has found a way to turn someone with no interest into a client please email me with your magical words.

Can all this work with profit?

Cost per lead = $4

Close 1 out of 30 = $120 cost per deal

Average commish = $1,000

Net = $880

So 30 leads a day would net $4,400. Even at half that commish - $500 per deal - it would net $2,200.

You can run that same math with internet leads and it also works. However, the twist with shared leads is 30 calls is only 3 to 5 people answering - not half like telemarketed. So now you really need tremedous follow-up and at 30 leads a day you'd be completely lost inside of 2 weeks. High volume really only works well with exclusive leads.

Got paid by Fidelity!

It's been a long time since I've earned a life commission but it feels great. An agent buddy of mine said I should be cross-selling 25% of my health clients. I agree.

I gave life a big push in 2005. Disaster. I find the underwriting process to be insane. Although I got cases through I pulled the plug when I wrote a heath and life app the same day - health got approved, life exam came back with high cholesterol and border-line high blood pressure.

Of course, my client dove into his doctor's office and was put on a med. So the life app was killed and take a shot and what happened to the health app after a claim was filed? Although that might be a rare scenario I'm not chancing that again.

So I'm writing the Fidelity non-med product and telling all my clients that after a year we'll review it. The last case I wrote was $38 a month and they could have got $22 with an exam. They can suck up the $16 for a year.

Not only that, but it's not like I'm hiding anything from my clients. I tell all of 'em "you choose - $38 and no exam or possibly $22 with the exam." If I run into a client who just had a complete physical - already knows HBP and cholesterol numbers and doesn't mind the exam then I'd go for Banner.

A little about my system

First, 12 more leads yesterday which is fantastic. Lisa finally gets her internet hooked up tomorrow which means Jenn and Lisa putting in at least 30 hours a week combined.

Before I get into my system I want everyone to realize that this is something that simply suits me. What you'll find is you won't stick to any system that doesn't fit your personality.

Everyone should be focused on results - not closing ratios, lead sources, online sales vs. in-person, etc...Basically, if it's no broken don't fix it. If you're making great money off shared leads and online sales don't change a thing.

SYSTEM:

STEP 1:
The morning after I get my leads, around 10am I start the calls. At this point I haven't sent any info by email. When they answer I simply introduce myself and tell them I'm about to email them the newest health plans but I want to make sure I'm sending plans they're interested in:

"....I'm about to email you the newest health plans on the market but I'm pretty sure you don't want to look at 50 plans. I know you're busy and I'd rather just send the plans that fit what you're looking for."

This is either going to open up a conversation or:

A: "You really caught me at a bad time. Could you call me back in say, next August?"
B: "Just send me what you have and I'll look over it and get back to you."

In either case, I read the tone of what they say. I can tell when they're actually busy, but still interested and when I'm getting the blow off. If they're disinterested I'll shoot them out an email but mark the lead dead. They got into Constant Contact for monthly follow-ups.

For the people who actually are willing to discuss what they have and what they're looking for, I can't get too much info; current rate, health status, current doctors, etc...Then I leave them with:

"Ok, I'm going to email some plans for you to review but it'll take around a day to get the rates together, then I'll call you tomorrow and let you know if you can save any money."

This gives me time to contact underwriting and find out the scoop on their conditions - very few people have no pre-ex conditions going back 7 to 10 years. In fact, when some 52 year old tell me he doesn't have anything pre-ex, that's when I start digging. A simply question does it "So you've never seen a doctor in the past 7 years?" which elicits "Oh, well I had some chest pains recently so I went in for a stress test but my doctor told me..." - yeah....no shit.

STEP 2:

I call back the next day and let them know the scoop - whether it's them being better off staying put, telling them I can only saving them $50 or so a month, or if I can save them a significant amount of money.

If I can't save them much, I'll just say thank you and if they know anyone looking for coverage just let me know. They'll also get a letter shot out to them with my card. If they were interested enough to give me all their info, their situation could change in the future.

For the people who I can save a decent amount of money:

"Ok, you're paying $680 a month now. I have plans that can save you between $200 to $300 per month depending on what you choose. What I'd like to do is set up a time when I can sit down with you (and your husband if spouse is in the picture) and show you your options.

Just to let you know how this works. There are no fees involved. Once you choose a plan your application simply goes into underwriting, which normally takes a few days. I've also already researched your doctors and they accept all the plans I'll be showing. I need about 30 minutes so what's a good time for us to meet?

A few points:

1) It's important to tell people there's no fees. They have no idea how we're paid and they might think they'll be hit with fees when you meet. If you're doing online sales they might think there are hidden fees if they do an app.

2) I always let people know how long it'll take. I think that's important for both phone and in-person sales. If they think it's gonna take more than an hour that could be a reason for people not picking up the phone for a phone sale or failing to set an in-person meeting. I'm not a "pet the dog" and "Wow!!! What a nice house!" guy. 15 minutes going over plans and rates, 10 minutes for the app and I'm history.

3) I violate a HUGE sales rule by not giving them dates or times to choose from: "I have tomorrow at 1pm or Thursday at 10. Which is better for you?" The reason is I'm looking for level of interest. I just told them that in 30 minutes I can save them at least $200. If they come back with "oh...wow. This week it out. And next week I have to wash my cat. How 'bout the week after that?" Forget it. Next lead.

And that's it. 2 steps. I'm not a big fan of waking up every day and wasting time trying to talk to people who are avoiding me. This is why when I get a hold of a prospect it's either they display interest or they don't. If they're interested by legitimately busy they generally say:

"You caught me at a very bad time but I'd like to talk to you. Can you give me a call back in an hour?" But when they just say "It's a bad time" and leave it like that I'll ask if there's a better time to call back. When it's "I don't know, it's a rough week" then just leave them be.

I also always call and confirm the appointment the day before and also never set appointments more than 1 week out. When I call to confirm I think it's weak to basically say "Hey, just reminding you that I'm coming." Instead, I call to confirm Mapquest directions - which has proven very helpful since a lot of times they give me a quicker way.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

The holiday push

While you'll continue to write business through to the new year you'll definitely have some short weeks coming up. I'm in "push mode" now until the new year. Next week we're obviously gonna lose Thusday and arguably Friday.

Next Month Christmas falls on a Tuesday so you can almost forget about Monday also. People's heads will be back in the game on Thursday but that following Monday is New Year's Eve - then kill Tusday for New Year's day.

The bottom line is beef up the sales. It's also important to close people when you can. This doesn't mean you have to put a ton of pressure on people but it does mean people are going to get very easily distracted by next week and call-back's are gonna get real tough. You'll need to create some sense of urgency of some people won't understand why they just can't wait until January.

If you're looking for legitimate ethical ways to create legitimacy it's rate changes and health. If you qualify for lower rates now then "you're one accident or illness away" from being trapped on your current plan. All rates are suject to change and do in fact change.

So when you're on the phone with an interested and qualifed prospect I'd suggest you make your sales process as quick as possible. The "call me back" people will be near impossible to get ahold of again.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Letting my free leads expire and advances

I noted in a former post about GR advancing weekly and people thought I was mistaken. I'm through Anthony Agoglia and they do indeed advance Golden Rule weekly just like Assurant. If you want his contact info just email me.

So let's talk about advances since there's two camps; advance vs no advance. With either system if the client drops off the books you don't get paid. With either system if you have a rather large amount of cancellations you'll be quitting - and quickly. And actually, if you're that worried about a lot of clients canceling, or have experienced clients canceling this is not the career for you. Out of 500,000 in volume you should have 1, maybe 2 cancellations per year.

That being said there's a saying in Vegas "Always play with the houses money." And actually, in business it's the same - never play with your own money. If you have $300,000 to your name, and a business costs $250,000 what do you do? Take a loan for $250,000.

However, some insurance companies are asking you to do just that - use all of your own money. So somehow, some way you're supposed to pay all your bills and all your marketing expenses for almost a solid year? If you open a business with $200,000 of your own cash you at least (hopefully) have immediate cash flow from the business.

Just imagine opening a restaurant. Then you pack the place for a month and generate $60,000 in sales. Visa calls: "Listen, we know you earned $60,000 but these people put it on credit and it takes them years to pay us back. So obviously we can't advance you the whole $60K when we haven't even got a payment yet. You'll get $4,000 this month." Right - and you'd go BK.

When I sold cars I got finance reserve - 10% and it was a significant portion of my pay. If the buy rate is 5% and we sold the loan for 8% we held 3 points and got commissioned by the finance company. But wait...the client hasn't made a payment yet! And it's a 5 year loan! The client could default and cost the finance company thousands. The client could BK. In any case, we got the commish the next week.

How do mortgage brokers get paid? As-earned over 30 years? Lol. Just look at how hard the mortgage companies are getting slammed now over ARM loans. Yet all those brokers who sold those loans have been paid. If the finance company has to foreclose, loses $50,000 at auction and the client BK's they're screwed. But the COMPANY takes that risk!

Don't listen to these agents who probably have working spouses or happened to come into this biz with a lot of cash talking about "go as-earned." I've never heard worse advice. If I could get advanced hourly I would. I'm a salesman and proud of it - a deal gets approved? Pay me!

The bottom line is the advance allows you to pay your bills and market. It also makes this job fun - unless you think it's fun to close a deal, wait 3 months then get $22.35. No - it's exciting to get $2,600 in a week.

Don't let anyone tie ethics to advances. Again, there's not a sales job in this country where you sell and close a deal, and wait over the course of the next 12 months to get paid. Not one. The sales industry would collapse. I have no idea how ethics are tied to me selling GR and getting paid next week, or me selling GR and waiting 12 months.

Simply unbelievable

Out of all the business I write I have about two or three clients cancel a year. Because of the methods I use to sign up clients, there's really no reason for a cancellation - especially in the 1st year. One of the reasons my closing percentage isn't that great is because I actually go over case scenarios to show people how the plan will perform - a lot of "no takers" after that since most people are spoiled with group and want everything at a copay.

If you've been in this biz a while, you learn to go into detail about the plan since it's inevitable that months later you get the "I just got a bill" phone call. I never get those calls. My clients know how the plan works.

Got a nasty call just now - lady I signed up on Aetna's PPO 30 a few months back launching into a speech about $40 copays for seeing a specialist - which of course she knew about, but that wasn't the gripe. The gripe was simply the cost. She found it, and I quote, "absurd that I have to pay a high premium and also pay $40 to see a doctor."

There was no appeasing her. She was canceling to find a plan with a $20 or less copay. I don't even have one available - $35 copay for Assurant and GR. $20 for Coventry but she's on meds so that's a decline - no drug coverage anyway on the Coventry 2500. She's a Blue Cross decline - wouldn't matter since Personal Comp doesn't have copays for sick visits.

So after I go over all of this we get to "we'll I'll just have to shop around on my own I guess." All I could say was "let me know how it turns out." I reminded her never to cancel coverage until she gets a new plan. Her reply? "I already canceled Aetna."

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Both marketers at it today!

The Reader's Digest version is Lisa's moving from Colorado to MD and just moved into her place yesterday, but won't have phone/cable until early next week - earliest Verizon can get out there. Jenn warned me yesterday that her son is sick and she'd try to work today. So basically, I expected nothing today.

However, the power of employee status with benefits comes through again. Lisa drove to her father's house just to work - got 8 leads. Jenn ended up taking her son to the doctor, however still snuck in a hour of calls - 4 leads. Extremely impressive. This is quality. I've never experienced this kind of consistency before and it's having a dramatic impact on my pay.

It can't be this easy. If it's this easy I'll kick myself. Offer a good pay package, W2 'em, offer health, and hire the best. I'm not saying there won't be any BS, just far, far less.

But if this actually works I'll be stunned. I simply want 30 leads a day, two deals a day and cross-sell a quarter of them life. I won't even run the math - it's crazy.

Fidelity - wow!

Same day approval for life? Fantastic!!!

Telemarketing script

Warning; long one:

The emails I've received lately all about telemarketing scripts - most people with lacking results. All of the people who are getting their ass kicked, or their marketers are getting their ass kicked all have something in common - they are trying to qualify.

Listen, imagine you're running any retail business. What's your job? Generating traffic. But don't get confused with operating something like a restaurant where almost everyone who walks in is a client and operating a clothing store where most people are just looking. You're the clothing store owner.

Would you pay someone to stand at the entrance of your clothing store and qualify people? Good luck with that: "Hi, welcome to Ann Taylor. I'd just like to ask you a few credit questions before you come in the store."

Yes....they are gonna come in, try on clothes, waste your staff's time, buy stuff and return it the next day. However, do you give a crap if at the end of the day you made $2,000 net? Say you have 200 people come through your store each day and only 30 buy. Are you really looking for ways to stop the other 170 from coming in? No...you're looking for ways to get 400 people through.

Imagine the VP's at Sears at the board table: "Listen, we have on average 10% of all store traffic purchase. Let's put our heads together and figure out a system to reduce our traffic by 80% and still keep all the buyers."

And we come to insurance agents who are racking their brains to find ways to not deal with "tire kickers" or "unqualified leads." All leads suck, you just need a lot of "sucky" leads to make great money.

I can see some of us actually trying to run that clothing store: "Hi, I'm the owner and I see you've been with one of my sales associates for 20 minutes now. Are you planning on buying something, because this is looking like a waste of time."

The hunt for the "qualified lead" is like the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. Out of all the agents I know who are actually making money all of them deal with high volumes of leads, be in internet or telemarketed. I heavily prefer telemarketed since although they suck, they are at least exclusive and small biz owners. I also can take my time with them and not worry about another agent, a month behind on their car payment, slamming them into a lacking plan.

I have my marketers simply ask owners if they want health insurance information emailed to 'em. Do I care if one is diabetic and just had a stroke? No. That's a 20 second phone call for me, at least he has my info, knows my business exists and I might get a referral.

The flawed mentality is this: "Hey, if I close 1 out of 15 maybe there's a way where I can just get 5 and close 1 out of 5." Stop looking to do less work. Stop getting frustrated when you call a prospect and they say "I just wanted the info, thanks." Stop pestering people who don't want to buy.

I'll include myself in this bust; I've never seen, as a group, a lazier bunch of people than insurance salesmen. Nowadays we want to pick up the phone, sell in our t-shirt and jeans and basically have no hassles. If we put in just half the effort of other sales professions we'd make $200,000 a year - easily.

You think you're getting stroked when talking to an unqualified lead? Sell cars. Take someone on three test drives, spend 4 hours with them then find out they have a 540 beacon and are $10,000 flipped in the trade. But does it matter if you sell 5 cars that week and make $1,500?

We sit in our offices - home or physical, and incessantly look for ways to make more and work less. I was on the phone with someone yesterday who said he wrote over a million last year using webinars. I made him laugh; "Can you make my next house payment for me?" Although he laughed, I said I was serious. He replied "of course not." I said "Good, because I've never written a mill. writing online so I meet with my clients." I really don't think my family cares how I write business - just that I write it.

And yet we fall for this don't we? We hear of these people making "thousands" a week and say "well I'm a sucker if I don't do the same thing." Right...but you try it and get your ass handed to you. Then you make $240 for the week and do what - tell your spouse "but there's this guy honey, he writes a million a year over the phone."

Life insurance idiocy and consistent leads

Well, I made a committment to cross sell life so I did an app. Actually, pretty easy cross-sell if you're committed to it. I've just never been committed. This was an extra $400 commish for basically doing nothing. Punched into my status - open requirment for verfiying mode of payment. What? Payment is listed to the left - credit card monthy.

Called the company and a less than pleasant lady - told me "obviously" it's a requirment because I forgot to put the mode of payment. She pulled up the app - goes "ooops." Then she says she has no idea why that's a requirement and fixed it. Welcome to life insurance. I am indeed committed to cross-selling life now - I think 1 out of 4 health apps should be a life deal.

On the lead front, another great day from Jenn - 9 leads. Making the marketers employees is a night and day differce. I have had telemarketers working for me since last summer and results were always all over the map. I've never experiened this kind of consistency. When Lisa's back up and running next week it should be insane.

Kudos to Aetna

Going through my email this morning I found my Aetna compensation statement. I was confused since Aetna doesn't pay until next week and a bit dismayed that it was only for $11.

So I called and they told me it was a client I just signed up who made a late payment and they wanted to make sure I got the commish as soon as the client paid. Wow - I'm geniunely impressed. What a 180 for them since when I started writing in '05 commissions were a nightmare. They now seem to be very broker focused. It's a shame they jacked the MD rate; family rate, 40 years old, $2,500 ded? $616. Ouch.

GR approves my deal!

GR finally approved my case. Fantastic....and slow. I take some hits for not selling more GR, I guess the theory is because of the Assurant weekly advance. Well, I get a GR weekly advance. In fact, one of my agent friends gets paid on submit for GR cases and still doesn't give them much business. One of my very good friends in CT who writes a LOT of business is struggling to give GR 50 cases a year to keep his broker contract.

The truth is I'd like nothing better than to write a lot more GR cases - they kill Assurant's rates. The problem is GR doesn't play nice with people who have on-going conditions - especially those on meds. And it's not rider vs. no rider. Lately they've flat out declined a few cases of mine. I have no problem with riders on recovered conditions although I've not a huge fan of ridering on-going conditions. But heck, I'd take a rider in a lot of cases if they'd just approve the deal.

I have other tiny issues with GR:

1) I hate the "80/20 to $10,000" in the brochure. Unless explained, some prospects think they need to reach $10,000 before GR pays 100%. While on sit-downs I always have to explain it. I have no clue why they don't just state the $2,000 OOP like other carriers.

2) Going through the brochure coverage is listed at "80%" on Copay Select again leading people to believe they only have 80% coverage - then I explain that's only until they hit the OOP. I would like it better if they just stated these items were "covered."

3) Online E-sig - where clients have to type their name in over and over and over and over.

4) Online app - bank address. I always have to hop onto Google since no one knows the address of their bank. I know this info isn't necessary to draft since no other company requires it.

5) Online app - inablity to put in detailed pre-ex information. Assurant's online EASE app allows the agent to enter extremely detailed pre-ex info necessary for proper underwriting.

6) No wet signature. I love Assurant's offer to accept/attest. For those who don't know, Assurant clients must review the typed app when they receive the policy, sign and return a document stating it's correct. This is a HUGE CYA move.

7) Inability to get riders signed when the app's approved. With Assurant I can email the counter off to my client which I think is imporant. GR just sticks the rider in the policy.

8) The software is awkward and nonfunctional. I can't email proposals to clients and do not like the way rates print out. I would think with the finaincal power of UHC they could have incredible software.

These or course are just nit-picky and have nothing to do with my recommendation or the sale. The truth is if GR dealt better with clients who are on meds they'd be 80% of my business. I do not work with internet leads where the average client is under 35 and healthy. That's a GR feeding frenzy. I work with 45+ biz owners who have to run to their medicine cabinet to read off their meds to me.

My suggestion is to have a flexible drug deductible. $100 is nice.....if you're not on meds. I think they should allow a $500 drug deductible option and deal better with people on medication.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Another marketer

Ok, it's time for a second marketer and I had it narrowed down to three people, but Jennifer ended up winning out. Great experience - used to set home-improvement appointments - fantastic attitude, single mom who needs the job and bene's. She did her 1st day today and got 6 leads in 2 hrs. Very respectable. After getting off the phone with her a little bit ago she's very focused on quality leads.

Lisa's moving now - getting set up by mid-week so she'll be making calls by Thursday. Lisa wants to give me 30 hrs, Jen wants to give me 20. I think that's wishful thinking on Lisa's part but she's good for 20. Fourty hours a week even at 4 leads per hour is 160 a week or 10 deals -which is my goal; run 2 appt's a day, close both and back by dinner (I don't run night appt's.)

This will all actually be very manageable. Calling 30 leads a day is very easy since I'm only looking for people who want to use my services. I let everyone else off the hook. I don't have much follow up. With my system they either want my help or they don't. There's not a lot of middle ground with me.

That's doesn't mean I don't have some call-backs. What it does mean is I don't chase people down with little to no interest. That'll drive you up the wall. Good app't setting day - shold have two GR deals going on Wednesday. Amazing...finally run into biz owners who aren't on medication.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Quality spam?

Got spammed yet again for health insurance, yet I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that "agent will contact you" is prominently displayed. Obviously this is an attempt to reduce the very high level of agent complaints against affiliates. Regardless of how a lead is generated, if the prospect knows and expects an agent to call, that's a decent lead.

Did a domain search on the owner - Howard Knaster who seems to be in the lead biz. While doing some research I pulled this up - hilarious. This is Netquote being accused by Mostchoice of clicking on their PPC ads to rack up charges: casedocs.justia.com/colorado/codce/1:2007cv00630/101284/62/0.pdf

Very nice

Great past week. I have this coming from Assurant plus I wrote a GR deal for another $1,080 commission - so the week's total was $4,500.

The big change?

1) Steady flow of telemarketed leads
2) Meeting with my clients

With my per-lead cost at around $2.50 I can handle a high volume - and with a high volume I can spend time with the prospects who want my help and not waste time with the "it's a bad time, call me on Thursday" people. Since the leads are exclusive it's no big deal if I can't get to them for a day or two. And as I've discussed before, the other change was making Lisa an employee.

Networking? I've been to three chamber of commerce events and I'll continue to go. However, the deals are very sporatic and there's no possible way you could make consistent money just by networking. It's just a good supplement to a steady lead source.

More leads = less frustration

Sounds obvious, but if you're looking for make this an enjoyable career you simply need a lot of leads. How many? The better agents close around 1 out of 15 - average is around 1 out of 20.

So work it backwards - you want 3 deals a week you're looking at between 50 to 60 leads. What I see is a lot of is agents getting 20 a week and trying to milk three deals out of it. Ain't gonna happen. If I was a new agent, no renewals, no referrals yet, etc...I wouldn't get out of bed for less than 8 leads a day.

What will happen is you'll doubt your selling ability, lead source and script. You'll got into "what am I doing wrong" mode when you're not doing anything wrong.

I know I have a client when I'm on the phone and they voice a problem - it's either the premium, plan or lack of insurance. If they don't complain chances are I don't have a deal. They need to be converational and you can be Zig Ziglar and not make them be conversational if they have little to no interest.

At least 80% of your leads, regardless of the source, will not be interested enough to be converational. They'd rather roll around in broken glass than talk to you for another 10 seconds. So the key to actually enjoying this is to let those people off the hook. Stop pestering them.

Do you actually call leads back 3, 5 five times? Then you're not getting enough fresh leads. If you weren't intested in something would you want someone calling you that often. Would you do business with someone that desperate? If I saw the same caller ID on my phone 5 times in two days I'd think "what a loser."

You and I both know the prospects who as soon as they pick up the phone and realize you're an agent mentally say "SHIT!" Again - let them go. Don't watch them twist and turn while you drone on and one with stuff they don't want to hear. Use your 6th sense.

When I go through my calls each day my line is "What are you most concerned about, your rate or your plan?" The answer for most people - neither. They're happy where they are. I'm looking for the 2 or 3 out of 15 people to engage me with "it's my rate. I hate it. I was struggling at $650 but now it's $720 and I need to do something about it." That's my client and you won't find too many like that unless you have high lead volume.

I guess you can pull a "salesman" on people and really dig in but then you might as well sell timeshares and make real money.

Trial results for Gary's CRM

Lisa tried the telemarketing CRM today. To be honest, it was the worst day for her to try this out - she's right in the middle of packing to move, is a single mom with twin 1 year olds and a 4 year old.

The good news is the results were fantastic. She was only on the system for 26 minutes and got 4 leads and this was while learning the system! I'd say when the learning curve is over she'll be at 10 to 12 leads per hour.

Regarding the costs involved - this is more about RIO and marketer retention for me. Not only that, but now I get reports so I can see what's going on. Priceless. I also wanted to mention that more than one person can use this system for the same price - just not at the same time. So one marketer could work mornings, the other afternoons.

So let's try to break the math down:

4 hrs per day X $12 per hour X 5 days X 4 weeks = $960

Monthly base price = $450

Data (about 5 cents a record) - about 5,000 records or $250

Total = $1,660

10 leads per hour X 4 hr X 5 days X 4 weeks = 800 leads per month

Cost per lead = $2.06 per lead. Half that amount of leads would be $4 a lead.

So I don't see how this doesn't work. If you've shied away from hiring home-based marketers because you had no way of tracking their true work times or results, well...here ya go.

And by the way, if I get 800 leads per month and closed 1 out of 50 that's 16 deals a month - $3,500 AV per deal is $56,000 in volume. Just wanted to point out the absurd. Closing 1 out of 50 is like calling people and saying "Hey, you don't want health insurance do you?" 1 out of 50 would say "Actually, I do."

I'd hate to even think of the reality which is 1 out of 15 closed. That's $185,000 in monthly volume. Lol. Although I laugh at that there are absoutely agents writing 2 mill a year in health premiums. It's "do-able" with telemarked leads since you can get back to people when you have a chance without a pack of wolves jumping on them.

Just called the last batch

Ok, just finished calling the 8 telemarketed leads I got yesterday. Mind you I called the 17 shared leads yesterday with zero deals working. I "should" be on the phone calling them all again today, but screw that. Who wants to do that all day.

Out of the 8 telemarketed leads 6 picked up the phone. Of those 6 four were the owners. One had Tricare and was just looking for supplemental coverage. That's dead. Then I have two on Kaiser - hate the plan and another family paying over $500 for BCBS - no copays and limited drug coverage. So out of 1 round of calls I have three deals working and two leads to yet get a hold of.

All of these leads are local, exclusive and half the price of shared leads.

Go GR

11:02pm and GR finally figured out that an app completed at noon had been submitted. Alright! Now maybe we can have an underwriter take a look at this one by mid November. Yep - this is a company on the leading edge of technology.

Great day!

I ran my two appt's and got both deals. Did a GR at $360/mo and Assurant at $410. So today's total volume was $9,240. GR was a clean app - of course it's not even showing on my status report yet. Maybe that'll be approved in a week or so. Assurant's was applied for and approved today.

I got nailed with shard leads between last night and today - 17 of 'em. Of course I was busy today and started calling them around 3pm. I posted the results. After one round of calls - zero working. It's not to say there's not a deal in there somewhere, but it's like pulling teeth and they ain't biz owners.

Thankfully Lisa got me 8 more telemarketed leads today. Doesn't really matter when I call them back. They aren't going anywhere. The 2 deals I closed today were both from her leads. I can't remember when I closed my last shared lead. Oh well, the Assurant leads are free until my account runs out - then I won't renew.

So basically it was just over $2,300 for me today by just getting telemarketed leads and sitting down with my clients. Amazing that with all this new technology what works the best is the old school method. It's not rocket science.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Slammed

Yes, I'm officially slammed. I ran an app't yesterday, got the deal then got home and made my app't setting calls. I have two appt's today - yanking a husband/wife off Right Start and writing an Assurant HSA. Both of them are off Lisa's telemarketed leads.

I'm also very anxious to get this new telemarketing software/CRM installed. I'm waiting on Lisa - she's busy packing to move this week and we should be up and running by mid next week. I think this is going to change a lot - just being able to run detailed reports changes a lot. As I stated below, one of the major problems when hiring home-based marketers is you never really know how many calls they make or how many hours they work. This obviously solves that.

It also makes a difference that I'm back to sitting with just about everyone. Yes, you can sell on the phone. I can to. But it's not a matter of which deals you close, it's a matter of which deals you don't close. The mentality seems to be "if they're not interested enough to sign up on the phone it's a deal deal or it would have lapsed." To me that's lazy agents looking for justification. That was me most of last year - call someone back who I thought was very interested, right to voice mail and I'd say "Oh, well - they weren't that interested."

It's just an extremely easy process to qualify and set the appointment. Less is more. You don't have to run around all over your state all week when 4 to 6 deals is a lot of money. Don't run 10 to close 4. Run 4 to close 4. When I'm on the phone with a lead:

1) Qualify for health - very detailed health history. I don't like surprises at the appointment.

2) Qualify for interest - Ok, I'm saving them $120 a month. Do they care? Is that enough to make them move? I ask. If not, you'll run the app't only to hear "sounds great - got a card?"

3) Qualify for time - Do they want coverage to begin within 2 weeks? Sometimes you hear "Send me what you have but I'm paid through December." Could they cancel and get a refund? Yes. Will they? Unlikely.

And finally, everyone knows I'm coming to do an app. I actually go over the application and underwriting process while I'm setting the appointment - letting them know approval times, making sure I can set an effective date to match their termination date, etc...My clients know I'm coming out so they can choose a plan.

A great past week

I had one of the best weeks since I've been in the biz. No - not pay-wise but just attitude. I closed both of my appointments yesterday - both in-person and although I've already known it all along I'm simply more positive and enjoy it much better when I meet with my clients. It's not right, it's not wrong, it's me. It's what I enjoy doing. All of my leads are local, all of my appt's are local, they know I'm coming to write an app, they're already qualified, and I confirm all appointments. I do not run 10 to close 5. I run 5 to close 5.

I would never have closed my 1st app't over the phone; family of five - own a real estate appraisal company - got suckered into Mega. The husband's attitude was "fool me once...." It was an hour and a half appointment and I was grilled. 20 minutes there, 1 1/2 hour app't, 20 minutes back. Waste of time? $1,700 commish - I'm happy. Second app't I could have closed on the phone but 10 minutes away, 25 minutes in her house and I had a better time.

Lisa amazed me last week. First of all she's in the process of moving and technically wasn't supposed to start until Nov. 1st, but told me she'd give me what she could this past week. She worked 6.25 hours and got 31 leads for a cost per lead of $2.41. Lord, I could buy her a car and make the payments and I'd never get to a shared lead price of $8 per lead. I have 3 appointments set from those leads and haven't even called Thursday or Friday's leads yet. Yep - she worked yesterday even though I told her not to worry about it because of her kid's doctor appointment.

Next week she's gonna demo Gary's system and I'm expecting fantastic results. I'll let you know how it all goes. Still swamped in resumes which I'm going to get to next week since I want one more marketer.

What a pleasant change

After getting my ass kicked on the workforce exchange idea it's nice to see the tables turn. I've had home-based marketers working for me for over a year but the headaches involved have always very time-consuming.

This is where things like the chamber of commerce have proven to provide intangible benefits - like getting with other owners who have successful programs in place and don't mind sharing - especially if you're not a competitor. A lot of small biz owners employ telemarketing as a way to gain business.

What I have to learn is to start taking advice from people who are where I'd like to be. I'd like to be making $5,000+ a week (net) with a nice close-knit group of employees.

The W2 idea was something I once considered, but figured it would be a huge PITA, expensive and not provide better results. Wrong.

First of all I followed advice to post a real ad - not craigslist. Done. http://www.workbaltimore.com/seeker/posting/view/117661 Already the type of resumes I'm getting is night and day. I have no idea who to call back - most of them are already working telemarketing jobs at a call center - now they see they can do the same from home and have benefits. The last resume I got; 3 years working 4 hrs a day at a call center for a mortgage company. She's currently making $10/hr with health bene's but has a 30 minute commute to work. I'm getting hammered with resumes - 40+ so far.

Lisa, my current marketer told me yesterday she has to take her daughter to the doctor's today but "don't worry, I'll still be able to work my 2 hours." Wow. I actually told her not to worry about it and take the day off. Just the fact that we had that conversation is night and day from the 1099 mentality.

So what's this all cost? When you 1099 them it's costing a lot - high turn-over, lacking candidates to choose from, cannot control their hours, no benefits tying them to the job. The savvy ones know they're responsible for their own taxes and don't want to mess with it. The other ones have no idea they have to file quarterly then file the 1040, schedule C and SE - but it'll be a nice surprise for them come tax time.

So what's this really cost? They're on a 2 week 1099 trial period to make sure they work out before I make them an employee. Worker's comp is a joke - $180 a year. Workers comp rates are based on their pay and type of job.

Withholdings aren't that much. One marketer working 20 hrs a week @ $12hr = $240 gross, $214 net if they're claiming 1 which is $26 in withholding.

So what about the paycheck/stub nightmare? I have a Bank of America biz account and they do it for me. I enter in the hours, BOA does everything else and cranks out the check/stub for me. The IRS forms I have to file are online - relatively easy. Not bad.

Oh well, off to two appointments today.